The OSCE Mission to BiH strongly condemns the attack on Stari Grad Municipality Mayor Irfan Čengić. We appreciate the swift investigation by the FBiH and Sarajevo Canton law enforcement agencies and expect the perpetrators to be brought to justice as a matter of priority.
An explosive device was thrown at the house of the mayor of the Municipality of Stari Grad Sarajevo, Irfan Čengić, in the early hours of the morning (around 3:00 a.m.) on the night from Sunday to Monday.
Due to numerous inquiries from the media, Čengić called a press conference today, where he pointed out that it was evidently an attempt to intimidate him and his family, as well as councilor Vedad Deljković, at whose house an explosive device was also thrown seven days ago.
“It is evident that it is systemic intimidation due to the processes we are currently conducting in the Municipality of Stari Grad. We reported all of this to the FBiH and Sarajevo Canton Ministries of Internal Affairs, after which I was granted protection. We think that two cases like this in a period of seven days cannot be a coincidence, that is, they are closely related,” said Cengic.
He points out that these attempts will not stop the processes that have been started, and it is about the return of state property on which individuals have been getting rich for years, and which is part of the prosecutor’s process, where Čengić and Deljković are one of the witnesses.
“The indictment will be brought before the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo, and in this way they want to influence our testimonies in that procedure. We believe that the key motive of intimidation is the process of confiscating parking spaces from companies and individuals who have used those spaces for decades and in that way took large amounts of money, even up to millions,” explained Čengić.
He also added that these are cases within the “Start” action, where several councilors of the Stari Grad Municipality will testify, illegal hiring and dismissals, and illegal use of parking lots, public areas and real estate in the Stari Grad Municipality.
Councilor Vedad Deljković adds that the requests will not bear fruit, because all processes and investigations will be brought to an end, and all parking lots will be safely returned to the Municipality, Fena reports.
